Security Systems News - Jeff Atkinshttp://securitysystemsnews.com/taxonomy/term/181
enPost NYBFAA open discussion forum, Article 6-E put to bed?http://securitysystemsnews.com/article/post-nybfaa-open-discussion-forum-article-6-e-put-bed
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2011-02-17T14:54:37-05:00">02/17/2011</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Daniel Gelinas</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"><p>ALBANY, N.Y.—It looks as though Article 6-E has reached the end of its <a target="_blank" href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/search/node/Article%206-E">journey</a>—for now.</p>
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In a Feb. 15 email interview with <em>Security Systems News</em>, NYBFAA executive director Dale Eller said the New York state association’s board of directors had a lot to think about after the Feb. 10 meeting at which two dozen security industry executives aired their opinions on the nascent central station licensing legislation. Eller said the board came to a decision late in the day Feb. 15.</p>
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“As of today, the board has decided to suspend any additional efforts by their lobbyist toward seeking out a sponsor for the bill,” Eller said. “They are trying to determine what other stakeholders should be polled or surveyed to ensure that everyone in and out of the association has an opportunity to be heard.”</p>
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So does that mean Article 6-E is dead? Or is there still a possibility of a revised piece of legislation appearing at a later date? SSN posed this question to Eller in a Feb. 17 interview.</p>
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“Our intention really was to kind of put this in a box with a glass cover that says: ‘Break in Case of Emergency’ … One thing the board has been very adamant about was that there was a lot of work put into this, and there’s still a lot of work that needs to go into it to get it ready for ‘What if?’” Eller said. “The industry got what it wanted. This thing is stopped right now. But the board was accused of not taking input, so they’re going to go above and beyond and talk to everyone about this and see what they think. Both proponents and opponents agreed that the actual best place for this and the place they’re looking for leadership on this is CSAA.”</p>
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Eller followed up his Feb. 15 email interview with SSN with a Feb. 16 posting on the ACCENT Listserv that spotlighted the meeting and made clear that the association would continue to poll the industry on how it feels about Article 6-E. The posting, attributed to NYBFAA president Joseph Hayes, also called some to task.</p>
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There is a “misconception that the NYBFAA was unwilling or reluctant to accept input, pro or con, on the proposed legislation. Nothing could be further from the truth, and we respectfully request those individuals perpetuating this fallacy to stop their misleading comments and postings,” Hayes said in the email. “Additionally, there are those within the industry who continue to spread misinformation regarding the original roots of Article 6E, and as recently as the weekend following the NYBFAA meeting continued to allude to some type of ridiculous conspiracy theory regarding the ‘true’ beginning to this proposed legislation, its authors and alleged hidden agendas.”</p>
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The ACCENT posting explained the legislation was created by former New York third district Sen. Brian Foley “in response to a local alarm dealer constituent’s request.” When asked if he could share the identity of the constituent, Eller demurred.</p>
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“We’ve decided we’ll let him come forward himself if he wants to,” Eller said. “There have been a lot of personal attacks involved in this, and he’s a little nervous about coming forward, not because he’s ashamed of what he did, but who wants to deal with the abuse that’s being dished out. It’s sad.”</p>
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The common theme among the numerous security industry professionals with whom SSN spoke during the interim between the Feb. 10 meeting and the NYBFAA’s Feb. 15 announcement has been trepidation.</p>
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“This has now become officially crazy … They kept saying at the meeting, ‘Well, with a little tweaking—' No! No tweaking … The amount of money involved in people flying in to attend this meeting and hotel rooms and everything else was crazy,” said Rapid Response president Jeff Atkins. “We should be working together as an industry in a synergistic fashion on issues like <a target="_blank" href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/illinois-fire-monitoring-bill-ignites-protest">what’s going on in Illinois</a>, or <a target="_blank" href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/proposed-legislation-would-without-question-affect-security-industry">what’s going on with the limitations of liability clause issues in New York</a>, not wasting resources fighting legislation no one wants.”</p>
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ADT industry liaison manager Bill Cooper said anti-6-E sentiment was prevalent at the meeting.</p>
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“I felt that the opposition to the bill was fairly obvious at the meeting,” Cooper said. “We are categorically against it and feel it has little to no redeeming features. It could be construed by some to be anti-small business, and we are concerned that the ultimate losers if this bill passes will be the consumer, because of the unnecessary added costs associated with the legislation. It also appears that the cumulative market share of those in opposition is very large, which should carry some weight.”</p>
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Doyle Security president John Doyle spoke with SSN on Feb. 10 as he was leaving the meeting in Albany.</p>
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“There was a great turnout at the meeting of members and guests. I was just pleased that they had this meeting. It was well organized and everyone got to say what they wanted to say. I feel like I was listened to and I feel it was a healthy airing of thoughts and opinions,” Doyle told SSN. “CSAA’s message about a national bill did get through at the meeting, as well, and I was pleased to see that.”</p>
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Eller, in his Feb. 15 email interview with SSN also called on CSAA to step forward.</p>
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“There was considerable discussion during and following the open forum regarding CSAA taking the lead on the development of a national alarm monitoring standard/license so that this issue need not be dealt with on a state-by-state basis,” Eller said. “It is unclear from the guests or board members in attendance exactly where CSAA is in this process, but the NYBFAA is planning on discussing it in greater detail with the CSAA leadership.”</p>
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CSAA president Ed Bonifas, in an <a target="_blank" href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/proposed-new-york-legislation-causes-major-stir">earlier interview with SSN</a>, stated he felt a national licensing push was the answer to the burden created by state-by-state licensing. He still feels focusing on a federal license rather than on state-by-state initiatives is the way to go.</p>
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“We are prepared to take this up and we will be communicating with the industry as we move forward,” Bonifas told SSN. “The solid plan is that the AICC—the membership committee that handles the industry’s lobbying in Congress and with the FCC—has been delegated with studying this and coming up with a plan that has a chance of working … I think we’re going to measure twice and cut once. Lobbying Congress is not going to be cheap, and we need consensus.”</p>
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Eller said the efforts of the NYBFAA and the Article 6-E Review Committee could benefit the monitoring industry’s association as it picked up the reins.</p>
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“What’s going to happen next is that the board is going to poll the industry and collect all the information and all the comments,” Eller said. “We’ll package all of that together and deliver it to CSAA and say, we got all this information from all the demographics so you can take this to the next step at the national level.”</p>
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<em>Security Systems News</em> will continue to report on Article 6-E and any national initiative as developments arise.</p>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Post NYBFAA open discussion forum, Article 6-E put to bed?" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:54:37 +0000legacy_editor14423 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/post-nybfaa-open-discussion-forum-article-6-e-put-bed#commentsRRUG debuts to positive response from attendeeshttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/rrug-debuts-positive-response-attendees
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<div class="field-item even">Rapid Response educates and entertains</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2009-09-03T03:00:00-04:00">09/03/2009</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Daniel Gelinas</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"><p>VERONA, N.Y.--The Rapid Response Users Group debuted here Aug. 31 through Sept. 2 amidst much fanfare at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino. More than 430 attendees represented more than 280 current and prospective Rapid customers present by the invitation of Rapid Response.</p>
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<p>The first day of the RRUG opened with a welcome breakfast and presentation by Rapid president Jeff Atkins, during which the RRUG’s tagline, “Visioning the Future,” was unveiled above the stage. Part of that visioning was Atkins’ announcement that Rapid was in the process of migrating all of its accounts to Secure Global Solutions' monitoring platform stages. Of the partnership with SGS, Atkins told dealers “you’ll be able to improve response time and improve your relationship with your customers by tenfold.”</p>
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<p>Atkins also made claims that the Rapid difference laid with his company’s personnel. “The most important part of Rapid Response is the people. Starting from 1992, we’re the only central station that has protocols and criteria--educational criteria and standards--for operators. Most other central stations, as long as you have a pulse, they hire you as an operator,” Atkins said and went on to describe the stringent standards for becoming a Rapid employee, including at least a two-year college degree, pre-employee screening, personality profiling to assure proper placement, drug screening, criminal background check, and satisfactory completion of SIA training courses, including alarm processing, customer service courtesy training, and ongoing skill and enhancement workshops.</p>
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<p>Atkins and Rapid chairman and CEO Russ MacDonnell also announced their EMT-staffed response center Life Safety Monitoring was about 60 days from full launch. Medical Alarm Concepts, Visonic and Linear were present at the event in the exhibitor hall to demo their PERS solutions to attendees. Two of the most popular educational sessions, each of which played out to standing-room-only crowds, were dedicated to the PERS market and its exciting place in the market strategy of the traditional security company today. The sessions, “Emerging Opportunities in Life Safety Monitoring,” parts one and two, ran back-to-back, ran long, and saw extensive audience participation from integrators eager to reap the RMR of this emerging business model. The sessions packed in information on how to start and grow a successful and RMR-generating PERS business from MacDonnell, Rapid advanced dealer support rep Joe Parisi, Linear regional sales manager Todd Carson, Visonic VP of sales Mark Ingram, and MAC CEO Howard Teicher.</p>
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<p>All attendees were treated to a tour of Rapid’s 40,000-square-foot monitoring center in nearby Syracuse. The tour, while quick, offered attendees a peek at the smoothly running facility and well-trained personnel of whom Atkins spoke at the welcome breakfast. The tour also afforded a brief glimpse of the separate “pod” from which the LSM operators will monitor PERS accounts.</p>
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<p>One of the most popular events at the RRUG was the keynote talk on leadership during the reception and dinner on Sept. 1 from former space shuttle commander and NASA astronaut Col. Richard Searfoss. Searfoss talked about his experiences as a test pilot and shuttle pilot and shared his “philosophy on the universality of the principles of leadership.” Searfoss explained in order to be leaders in their industry, today’s security company owners needed to stand up, take risks, and dare to have vision. Today’s leaders, according to Searfoss, need to have purpose, a program of action, the people to get the job done, and perspective. Searfoss’ talk was greeted with the RRUG’s only standing ovation.</p>
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<p>Overall, attendees this reporter spoke with were impressed by the organized, smooth-running nature of such a large-scale event (especially since this was Rapid’s inaugural Users Group), as well as the personal nature of all the Rapid Response employees on-hand to make sure all questions were answered and everyone’s needs were met. Buck Lewis-Mathieu, president of Chicago-based Prairie Signal Company, said they had been with Rapid for almost 10 years and had come to respect the service Rapid delivers. “If you weren’t familiar with Rapid Response this event could appear to be a lot of blow-harding and glad-handing,” Lewis-Mathieu said. “But it isn’t. It just isn’t. They back it all up.”</p>
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<p>Exhibitors at the premier RRUG included AES-Intellinet, Aiphone Communications, Alarm Capital Alliance, Alarm Financial Services, Bosch Security Systems, D.A.F. Office Networks, Digital Monitoring Products, Door Security Solutions, DSC, Eastern Distributing, ENV Insurance Agency, FireLite, GE Security, GMR Video, HAI, Haylor, Freyer &amp; Coon, Honeywell Security &amp; Communications, John, T. Costa Co., Linear, MAC, Napco Security Technologies, OzVision, Video IQ, Videofied/RSI, Visonic, Xanboo, Xtralis, and Z-Micro Technologies among others.</p>
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<p>The second annual RRUG will take place at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in early August 2010.</p>
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<span property="dc:title" content="RRUG debuts to positive response from attendees" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0000legacy_admin7640 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/rrug-debuts-positive-response-attendees#comments